The Road Essay Theme: Morals can survive even in the worst settings. In the harsh world of The Road, there is a man and boy who both struggle to survive and their only hope is to cling on to the good morals. People have abandon all the good morals and have resorted to violence, murder, and cannibalism to survive. Although Cormac McCarthy envisioned the world stating that only the violent survive, he also created two characters that would defy that belief by having them survive and simultaneously stick with their good morals. Cormac McCarthy defines the difference between the good and the bad. He used detailed imagery to describe the corrupt appearances the bad guys have. Cormac McCarthy created the setting to make it seem like only the corrupt …show more content…
But they came across a person that would show that there is still good in the broken world. After they met different kinds of people, all the father and son did was either leave them to die or kill them. So the statement that they’re the good guys can be questioned. Until they met a man named Ely. “I 've not seen a fire in a long time, that 's all. I live like an animal. You don’t want to know the things I 've eaten. When I saw that boy I thought that I had died. You thought he was an angel? I didn’t know what he was. I never thought to see a child again. I didn’t know that would happen.” (Pg 172) This quote shows that the boy’s innocence was very precious and rare. The innocence and compassion of helping people in this world has been lost and seems like it will be lost forever. “I’ve not seen a fire in a long time, that’s all. I live like an animal.” This fire was supposed to represent the basic decency in a world that has been corrupt. Ely hasn’t seen it for a while and when he saw the boy, he thought he was dead because such innocence and compassion seemed very unreal. This gives hope to readers that the man and boy still have good morals in them and that they could survive and simultaneously “carry the
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Show MoreThis is similar to the previous quote in the fact that a world was lost. The people had not died in this story, but they were not there anymore. They were as good as dead. “You’ve let this room and this house replace you and your wife in your children’s feelings. This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents.”’
The boy takes care of him as they talk one last time. Most prominently, the symbol of “the fire” (McCarthy 278) and carrying it are used to display hope and virtue. The man often uses ‘carrying the fire’ as a way to
The thrilling novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy is a story about a post apocalyptic world following the lives of a man and a boy as they head south to escape the cold winter that is headed their way. Along with the cold of winter approaching they also have to deal with the new dangers of the land while traveling such as cannibals, robbers, and many more dangers. This is a tale of a unnamed man and a boy who must not only learn how to survive but find a inner “fire”, establish a code of ethic, and continue in finding reasons to live in this “new world”. With McCarthy’s unique approach to the characters of the book having no names or the cause of destruction of the world unknown it helps the reader feel the confusion and whats really important
Moreover, he says, “He could not construct for the child 's pleasure the world he 'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he” (154). For the father, the earth enjoyed by the man during his own childhood is a planet that no longer existed to the boy. When the man considers
In an apocalyptic world, a man is searching for hope as he tries to protect his son. In the Bible, Abraham is left searching for faith as God commands him to kill his only son, Isaac. The man and Abraham are both searching for something that they do not possess and they both look to their children to find it. Cormac McCarthy in The Road tells a story of a man’s mental and physical journey as he travels south to protect his son, but along the way he encounters internal battles within himself and contemplates if there is enough hope to continue. Author Alan Noble argues in his essay that hope is the driving force for the man and boy’s survival, which we agree with.
McCarthy uses symbolism throughout the entire book. He symbolizes “the fire” that the boy is carrying and how the difference between fighting and giving up. This symbolism is part of a bigger literary analysis that I read this novel through. The literary analysis is called Formalism and it is used to separate everything apart from the novel to just read the novel in its raw state to find the symbols and meaning behind the text.
To Change is to Grow Through the book “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the boy and the father show a great amount of change and maturity, while also learning to adapt and love. The story has a good balance of how different events can affect and impact someone's life in either a good or bad way. There are many events that change the mind and heart of the boy and father, but change can only be helpful if you learn from it and mature out of being afraid for things to happen. The stories main idea is very tragic in a dark, grey world where nothing ever good happens and instead of learning to live your preparing to die.
As the boy and the man journey down the road they come across the remnants of fire’s wrath. They live “through the drifting ash” (pg 191), the remains of what once was scattered across the world. The boy and man travel through the remnants of life that was burnt by fires. Fire has been utilized as a weapon by other survivors as well, charring and cooking their victims. The woman who cooked her newborn baby over a fire killed a new life.
The passage begins by alerting the reader of the she-wolf’s death, witnessed by a man referred to by “he”. In the second paragraph of the passage, the man makes a fire, which is supposed to get him through the night. Contrary to the darkness, the light of
In the book “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the two protagonists, a boy and his father, are set out in a post apocalyptic world where everything is trying to kill them from cannibals to people with nothing. Their main goal is to travel down a road south where the climate is better for living. On their journey they encounter many life threatening obstacles including starvation and “bad guys” that they must overcome to survive. The paternal bond between the father and son is what pushes them beyond what could have been possible and allowed them to make it along their journey.
Some days they go hungry, the weather uproots their lives, and other hindrances place a awful, dark outlook on life. Cormac Mccarthy writes about a disgusting world. It is the dying of lie on the planet, the end of the world. Not only do the gruesome events in the novel led the reader to take an opposing view, but even the setting of the novel
Naturally, fire is thought of in conjunction with destruction, but in a survival sense it signifies hope and warmth. Carrying the fire basically means that even though all the odds are against the father and son they are still pushing forward. It is something to live for when truly there isn’t. At the end of the story, when the father dies, the boy has to continue on the legacy without him. When he stumbles upon a man who asks if he wants to join their family the boy immediately asks if he’s carrying the fire.
There are many lessons throughout the novel that could be taught and learned in our world, this society, today. They may be true; however, the reasons the lessons are taught in the first place is because of the society being presented in this literary work, The Road. This gives the sociological approach a more appropriate understanding approach to the road. The society and the characters can be analyzed thoroughly and effectively this way. “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that will never be and you are happy again then you have given up.
The fire was also a symbol of civilization, that the boys would survive and get rescued. Fire is quite profound in what it reveals about humans. The fire was the object that the hunters didn’t have, it was desirable because it was limited. The fire brought out the innate greed that humans possess. The hunters weren’t content with asking for fire from Ralph, they were too prideful and savage to be civil in any manner, so they stole it.